Zoe and Akil’s Wedding at Fazeley Studios

The English civil ceremony of Zoe and Akil at Fazeley Studios was the third in their weekend of multi-faith wedding events, giving them the chance to really make the event personal. With a nod to the traditional, they made the event theirs with the venue, music and classy car!

As part of my wedding package I invite the bride and groom to come to my home to select the music for their special day. While this sounds ideal, what often happens is the bride comes with her sister, mother or best friend, and they choose the music, then later confers with the groom for confirmation. When both Zoe and Akil arrived, and both were engaged and excited about the music, I knew this was going to be a special wedding.

They started off telling me about the many activities taking place throughout their wedding weekend, emphasising how important family is to be with them and feel included.

Conversation moved to the atmosphere at Fazeley Studios, the venue for their September civil ceremony, and how light, airy and modern it is. Zoe was immediately attracted to Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol for her processional, and as soon as the couple heard me play Rather Be by Clean Bandit they both said “that’s it – that’s the first song we want to hear as a married couple”. So that became the first song for the signing of the register, followed by A Thousand Years and The Rose.

I was just starting to work on I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas and Akil was adamant that was the perfect song for them to leave together as husband and wife, and on the day it was absolutely the perfect song to wrap up a beautiful wedding!

Fazeley Studios is so light and airy – but the real attraction is the amazing acoustics, especially for a solo instrument like the harp. Without any amplification, the harp was easily heard all the way out in the lobby area while guests were mingling before the ceremony started. During the prelude (while guests were seated) I played a mixture of pieces to represent the diversity of Zoe and Akil’s families, including Flower Duet from Lakme, love theme from The Godfather, Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra (that’s an Irish Lullaby), Fur Elise, All of Me and the Mexican Wedding Song.

“What a perfect weedkend! Our ceremony was wonderful, made all the more perfect by @EskimoDalton who played her harp beautifully for us.”